Local elections in Gaza – first time in 20 years

TT

Published 07.46

 

A boy in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, where local elections are being held over the weekend. Picture from March this year. Photo: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP/TT

Local elections are being held in the West Bank and parts of the Gaza Strip this weekend. The elections are the first in the West Bank since the outbreak of the Gaza war and the first in Gaza in two decades.

Over 1 million are eligible to vote in the elections in the occupied West Bank and 70,000 in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, according to the election authority in Ramallah.

The elections in the West Bank include local councils that oversee water, roads and electricity, while the elections in Gaza are largely symbolic and are seen as a test for possible future elections.

“The idea is to connect the West Bank and Gaza politically under one system,” said Fareed Taamallah, a spokesman for the electoral commission.

The local elections are the first in the Gaza Strip since Hamas won the 2006 parliamentary elections and violently seized power in the Gaza Strip the following year from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank.